Ophelia Jensen just wants to be a normal small town
librarian. What she gets to be instead is a witch
pretending to be a normal small town librarian. Having
given up on witch craft four years ago when not even her
gifts could help her save her best friend, Ophelia moved to
the small town where her grandmother Abby lives and has
closed herself off from the world ever since. As a witch
herself, Abby does her best to convince her granddaughter
that she needs to practice her craft, especially when Abby
senses danger around Ophelia and the handsome new stranger
in town.
Richard Davis is the handsome new stranger in town and he
claims to be a chemical salesman. Only problem is, no one
believes him. Since he got into town, he hasn't made one
sales pitch. He spends all his time asking the locals
questions about the recent thefts of some bomb making
materials or annoying Ophelia at the library. When Rick
and Ophelia find a body in the park, Ophelia knows the
murder is somehow linked to the thefts in town. Abby's
convinced that in order to protect herself, Ophelia has to
once again put her faith in magick. But they soon discover
they'll need more than just magick to help them figure out
this mystery.
WITCH WAY TO MURDER is the debut mystery novel from Shirley
Damsgaard and also the first book in the Ophelia and Abby
mystery series. Unlike a lot of books about witches, there
are no spells or incantations involved in regards to
witchcraft in WITCH WAY TO MURDER, which I though made the
book even more believable. I love that Ophelia struggles
with accepting that magick can't help you save everyone you
love. It's not the answer to all your problems. I was
hooked from the get go and I can't wait to see what Ms.
Damsgaard has in store for these two in the next book in
the series, CHARMED TO DEATH, being released in March 2006.
Ophelia Jensen wishes she was just your typical,
thirty-something librarian. Unfortunately, she's been
burdened with psychic powers -- an unwanted "gift" she
considers inconvenient at best and at worst downright
dangerous. Her kindly old grandmother Abby, however, has no
compunctions about the paranormal, being a practicing witch
with unique abilities of her own.
And sometimes the otherworldly arts do come in handy -- like
when the arrival of a mysterious, good-looking stranger to
their normally tranquil corner of Iowa seems to trigger an
epidemic of catastrophes, from the theft of bomb-making
materials to a murdered corpse dumped in Abby's backyard.
Luckily Ophelia and Abby are on the case and determined to
make things right. But it'll take more than magick to get
out of the boiling cauldron of lethal trouble they're about
to land themselves in.